In January 2013 ProLabNL was unfortunately overtaken by a fire incident. The fire incident was caused by the failure of one of the two main electrical heaters. This incident was out of the hands of ProlabNL.
Fortunately, nobody got hurt in the incident and there was no environmental impact. The loop is up and running again. ProlabNL has also implemented some additional safety measurements to make the HP loop even safer. The direct heating system has been replaced by an indirect glycol/water heating system. Furthermore actuated safety shutdown valves were installed on all the large vessels. Sampling points were moved as much as possible to the outside to minimize the time that operators are inside the HP loop for sampling. In addition to the existing gas detection system a flame detection system was installed.
ProlabNL has successfully completed the first test program again. Two Multiphase Flow Meters were tested in parallel for BP.
The next customers inline are ExxonMobil and Reinertsen (end customer Statoil), both will be performing Multiphase Flow Meter testing.
In March 2014 ProlabNL will continue with the ExxonMobil compact subsea separation test program.